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In our emails, sent once or twice a week, you'll receive:
• alerts on new threats to Washington's environment
• opportunities to join other Washingtonians on urgent actions
• updates on the decisions that impact our environment
• resources to help you create a cleaner, greener future

Two billion bags used each year

Plastic pollution poses a serious threat to whales, seals, turtles, salmon and all of Puget Sound’s wildlife. Too much of the trash comes from single-use plastic bags, which can choke, suffocate or kill thousands of whales, birds and other marine wildlife each year. We saw the effects of this last year when a beached gray whale was found in West Seattle with 20 plastic bags in its stomach. Nothing we use for a few minutes should end up in the belly of a whale.

Yet 2 billion plastic bags are distributed annually throughout Washington state, and nationwide, less than 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled.

Marine life in danger

Too many of plastic bags end up as litter in Puget Sound, and its creating an ecological disaster:

• Whales and seabirds can ingest floating plastic, mistaking it for food. They also get entangled in bags and can drown or die of suffocation. A beached grey whale was found in West Seattle in 2010 with 20 plastic bags in its stomach.

• Adult seabirds inadvertently feed small bits of plastic to their chicks—often causing them to starve to death after their stomachs become filled with plastic.

• Small pieces of plastic can absorb toxic pollutants like DDT and PCB. Scientists have found that fish are ingesting these toxins when they ingest plastic, concentrating the chemicals in the food chain. There is a good chance that we also absorb these pollutants when we eat fish.

What’s really scary is that scientists tell us this plastic may never biodegrade. And every day we go without tackling this problem, it gets worse.

With your help, we can stop the flow of trash and begin the cleanup

The good news is, Washingtonians are taking action to protect the Sound. In 2009, Edmonds became the first city in the state to ban plastic bags. In 2011, six other cities joined the effort. Bellingham, Mukilteo, Seattle, Bainbridge Island, Port Townsend, and Issaquah all banned the bag, significantly cutting down on the amount of plastic flowing into Puget Sound. Today, dozens more communities are considering similar legislation, including Olympia. Local bans have an immediate impact and are a great start—but we can’t stop until bags are banned statewide.

We need you to get involved if we’re going to stop the flow of plastic pollution into the Sound. Your support will make it possible for our staff to do research, make our case to the media, reach out to critical constituencies, testify in Olympia, and educate government officials so that they can make the right choices. If enough of us speak out, we can cut the flow of plastic into Puget Sound by banning disposable plastic bags.

4,500 Washingtonians submitted comments to Gov. Inslee and the Department of Ecology (Ecology) calling for stronger state pollution controls for concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. Untreated manure from CAFOs is contaminating drinking water supplies and waterways across Washington with bacteria and nitrates, which can cause birth defects and other health consequences.

Local homeowners and environmental justice leaders from communities impacted by factory farm pollution joined health professionals and a diverse coalition of regional and statewide organizations to call on Governor Inslee and the state Department of Ecology to protect public health and drinking water by strengthening a draft permit for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Washington State.

Every day industrial dairy operations in Washington State generate millions of pounds of manure. With your help, we can make sure Washington’s waterways and drinking water supplies are protected from harmful manure pollution.

Key Facts

A statewide ban could keep more than 2 billion single-use plastic bags out of our environment each year.

Bag bans are on the books in Seattle, Mukilteo, Bainbridge Island, Bellingham and Edmonds—thanks in part to Environment Washington members and supporters. We're working to win more local bans while we build momentum to ban the bags statewide.